Google

Google Review: The Search Box Became a Camera

Lens Turns a Screenshot Into Shopping Results

Point it at a pair of trainers in a screenshot and the results come back as products with prices and merchant names attached — $45 and $65 in the store example — rather than as a list of web links. The same tool identifies a painting down to its title, reads and translates text in the frame, and has a homework mode for photographed problems. Multisearch adds a second dimension: an image of a shoe plus the word red returns red versions across several shops, which text search alone cannot do.

Gemini and Discover Share the Home Screen

Two feeds compete for the same space. A Gemini tab sits beside search, offering prompt suggestions and accepting typed, spoken or photographed input — the writing helper takes a photo of a dog and drafts a caption for it. Below the search box, Discover fills the screen with articles picked from your history and interests, alongside a weather card and shortcuts for shopping and translation. It is the part people either read daily or want gone, and it is the reason the app knows so much about its user.

Thirteen Data Categories, and Ads in the Results

Google Play lists thirteen collected categories, including location and personal information, with no third-party sharing declared, and the listing carries a Contains ads badge — sponsored results appear inside search, which is the company's entire business. Apple rates the iPhone build 17+ for unrestricted web content. The store ratings diverge as usual for Google's apps: 4.6 on the App Store from 5 million ratings against 4.0 across 29.4 million Play reviews. Nothing in the app is sold directly, which puts the entire commercial weight of the product on those sponsored placements and on the profile behind them.